Monday, 6 January 2014

My first Qatar National Day

Now my hotel is not a particularly busy one, so for most of the time I have a pretty peaceful existence, especially at
night as I rarely have someone in the room next door – other than during the
big holiday periods when Saudi families come to Doha for weekend breaks. Their children are lively little cherubs who really
enjoy running up and down the hotel corridors screaming – bless their little hearts !

So early in December, when I was being kept awake by a guy in the neighbouring room, who seemed to come in at 1am and have
very loud conversations on the telephone until around 3am, I assumed it would
only be for a couple of days. After the
5th consecutive night of the same pattern, sleeping with my head
under the pillow, I asked the hotel reception…… “when is the guy in the next
door room checking out?” Maybe I could get him moved. …… after
all, I worked for Al Jazeera and they’d want to keep me happy!

“Oh let me see, madam……. Oh yes, he checks
out on 20th December.…. he is the organiser of National Day!”
Well, I didn’t expect that!
“okay, thanks very much…” I smiled and went to work. I decided that I would lie there
each night feeling warm National Day thoughts and
imagining what the poor man must be going through!
I did have a fleeting idea that I might knock on his door very late and
do a pathetic ‘poor me’ act to get some free tickets…. But that’s not really my
style!!...... Instead, I noticed how much later and louder he got, as the big
day approached!

Then the day finally arrived…. The 18th
December was Qatar National Day. The big
day when everyone comes together – ex-pats and Qataris (all 400,000 of them it
seemed) to mark the day when Qatar officially became a unified nation state in
1878.

Now, it being my first time, (and after all those sleepless nights!) I just
had to experience the spectacle first hand.
Luckily I just happened to wake up at the crack of dawn (about an hour
after falling asleep) and when I checked the time of the parade, I thought I’d
better get straight out there to secure my spot nice and early…… hmmm….. well,
it seemed a few thousand others had already had the same idea.

I went on to the streets to be met by
thousands walking towards the Corniche (the seafront) where the
parade would take place. Luckily my
hotel is within touching distance so I didn’t need a taxi – many of the roads
were closed and those that weren’t were totally gridlocked!

...there were crowds of men hanging
around and going nowhere. It looked
like access to the Corniche was being restricted, so I suddenly thought the
event may be ticketed. It was then that
I realised, they were restricting access to allow only families, couples or
women – no single men. …..well, unless they were wearing a thobe and then they
would be allowed as they’d be assumed to be Qatari.

One of my friends phoned me to ask if I
could get through because his brothers had been blocked from attending. (They
are all Palestinian but born in Qatar). I
was just passing through the fence when a guy grabbed hold of me and said “I’m
with you”…… it was terrible. It felt like being on the Titanic - without the icy depths of the North Atlantic.... or the lifeboats..... or a sinking ship...... or the threat of drowning....... but I still felt guilty – some of these guys had been the workers who had been responsible for the
National Day preparations and the improvements to all the roads – including the
Corniche itself.

A friend told me it was because this was
seen very much as a family event and, this being a Muslim country, they do separate
single men and women/families at many events. There were still plenty of events which single men were permitted to
attend, including the much anticipated fireworks display in the evening.

It was a beautiful morning – although
pretty chilly. Organisers advised people
to dress warmly and indeed they did – the guys wearing coats over their thobes and I was wrapped up in my ghutra/ keffiyeh which I’d bought in the souq the
night before!

I found a good spot to watch from among the
crowds and soaked up the atmosphere until the parade started. I guess this is as close as I’ve ever got to
attending a Royal event –I’ve certainly never engaged in such activities in the
UK – I’m not a Royalist and I don’t like following the crowd! But somehow, here I feel free to join in the
cheesy cheering and waving like a good Qatari!
We all jostled for position, we got quite friendly with each other,
sharing sweets and saving each other’s places.

Many were dressed in the colours of the
Qatari flag and some of the outfits like the gentlemen in the photo here,
looked incredibly elegant. As a hush
descended and the Amir had taken his seat, we waited to see what would happen
next…….. out of nowhere a massive ‘BOOM!’ right behind us lifted us off our
feet and sent the crowds in my immediate vicinity running! What the…….. !!!!???........ then
another! Those of us who had decided
to stay to protect our viewing spots no matter what, stuck
our fingers in our ears and turned to see that we were standing immediately in
front of the cannons on the seawall!!
We had to stand through another 16 as an 18 gun salute took place. I can honestly say, I have never experienced
shock waves before ……… the force was such I had
to check that my clothes hadn’t been blown off, 'Carry on - Barbara Windsor' style!!

The parade was fabulous – various arms of
the police and military, marching or on horse-back. My favourite moment was the soldiers on
camels – riding both seated and standing waving their swords! Fabulous!
Alongside was a parade of military vehicles, some of them the weirdest
things I’d ever seen…….

All sorts of amphibious and not so amphibious, big-gun
toting, armoured, chemical-suited-personnel-carrying vehicles of every shape,
size and colour…. Well mainly sandy colour or black! This was followed by a brief fly-past and
also a parade of Dhows on the water which was beautiful.

One of my Yemeni friends, Osman, who is in
the Qatari Police, had been in the parade and was very proud of it. I agreed to meet with him and his friends
later that evening to watch the fireworks.

I
didn’t go out until quite late – around 8pm and headed past the Souq
again. I took a quick look but nothing
much seemed to be going on there – perhaps knowing it would be crazy to compete
with the celebrations along the Corniche that night.

I texted Osman to find out where he and his
friends were……. And he texted me back this photo!! My reply went something like…… ‘I am now
walking in your direction, I may be some time!’…… they were all the way around
the other side of the Corniche – about 5 miles.
The Corniche was crammed at my end (considered the poorer end of town by
some….. as its where all the real workers hang out….. but it’s definitely the
richer in terms of action and atmosphere).

The
roads were jammed with flag waving revelers….. all standing through their sun
roofs, singing, tooting their horns etc….. a little bit like my neck of the
woods in North London when Arsenal wins! I walked as quickly as I could and texted
…… “are you in your thobes?” If they weren’t, there was little hope of spotting
them among the crowds. As I walked
around the Corniche to the City Centre end (the posh end), I started to see a
few more thobes and more westerners too.

Then I spotted them walking towards me….. Osman, Malek and Walid. It was great to see them as always and they
greeted me with the one-sided double kiss – usually reserved for male friends
only but as I’m now officially part of the Yemeni crew, they make an exception
for me! This is Osman and Malek - Walid was suffering with a cold and feeling decidedly unsociable.

We hung out, soaking up the atmosphere, and
waited for the fireworks. Osman spotted
a refreshment hut and went to get us all chai (very sweet black tea). There was a crazy scrum but as one of the
tallest and the only one in the crowd wearing a thobe, he pushed himself to the
front….. at one point there were so many of them pushing, I thought the whole
hut would topple over.

We found a great spot to watch the
fireworks together on the water’s edge – they were incredible and lasted just
about as long as fireworks should last – around 10 minutes, set to orchestral
music. They were launched from the
little island in the middle of the bay, with the reflections in the beautifully
calm waters adding to the effect. Of
course, everyone watched them through their phones, recording it for later
rather than watching it now, as is the way these days. As they finished, Abdul announced “Halas”……
as one or two little fireworks continued to splutter into the air…… leading
everyone to wonder if they really were finished or this has just been the
prelude to an even bigger display!

We decided to take the long walk back towards
Souq Waqif so that the boys could try and find a taxi!! Although the roads by now were jammed solid
with flag-waving 4x4s! Osman was still
feeling the pride and excitement from this morning’s parade and couldn’t help
himself from marching as we walked along – of course submitting himself to much
mockery by the rest of us. We had a
great time together as we walked back along the Corniche and I felt a very warm
glow of friendship across our cultural and linguistic differences. A fabulous way to round off National Day. My thoughts turned to my noisy neighbour, and
wondered if everything had gone to plan, or had their been mistakes which, of
course, none of us noticed!

1 comment:

About Me

Im an English girl, living in Qatar since 2013. I have immersed myself in the arabic culture, developing close friendships with locals and other arabs from the region, Yemen in particular. I've travelled to the UAE, Jordan and Yemen in 2014 before the war started. I am fascinated by other cultures and blog about my life in Doha, Qatar, my travels in the region and my love of Yemen and the Yemeni people.